Family Roger Chapman

The post-Family band formed by Family masterminds Roger Chapman and Charlie Whitney. Where their former band balanced art-rock and blues-rock, the Streetwalkers were a throwback, a blues-rock band that put Chapman's extraordinary voice front and center. Unlike Family, however, the Streetwalkers, who were a good but not great band, sounded too calculated, as if they wanted to cash in on some of the pre-punk hard rock notoriety that bands like Bad Company and Thin Lizzy were getting. Where they remained consistent with their former aggregation was that the Streetwalkers, though popular in England, were virtually ignored in America.

Various Artists - The Bakersfield Sound - Country Music Capital Of The West 1940-1974 (2019) {10CD Set Bear Family BCD16036}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 3.90 Gb | MP3 @320 -> 1.68 Gb
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© 1940-74, 2019 Bear Family Records | BCD 16036
Country / Traditional Country / Bakersfield Sound / Honky Tonk

Buck Owens turned Bakersfield, California into the epicenter of hip country music in the mid-'60s. All it took was a remarkable streak of number one singles that steam rolled right through Nashville with their electrified twang, forever changing the notion of what constituted country music and codifying the Bakersfield sound as hard-driving rhythms, trebly Telecasters, and lean arrangements suited for honky tonks, beer joints, and jukeboxes all across America. Half-a-century later, these remain sonic signifiers of Bakersfield, so the term no longer conveys a specific sound, place, and era, a situation the weighty Bear Family box The Bakersfield Sound: Country Music Capital of the West 1940-1974 intends to rectify.

By the time of this album's release in 77, PFM had become a fairly different group than they had started out as and their influences had changed dramatically: gone are the Crimson ELP Genesis traits, and incoming are the GG and much jazzier inflections…

In 1973, Mike Oldfield burst onto the British music scene with his debut album Tubular Bells, two long instrumental suites in which Oldfield stitched together a series of melodies into a grandly scaled work in which he played the many instruments himself. The album was an audacious beginning to a career than saw him become one of the most respected artists in progressive rock, as well as a successful film composer. The Complete Mike Oldfield is a collection released in 1985 which features selections from his first ten solo albums, as well as highlights from his score for the film The Killing Fields.

Beckett Vocalist Terry Wilson-Slesser, a native of Newcastle upon Tyne, was to figure in ex-Free guitarist Paul Kossoff's solo outfit Back Street Crawler and was later hook up with Charlie. The vocalist was also known to be in contention during 1980 for the AC/DC frontman vacancy following Bon Scott's death.
Wilson-Slesser had replaced original Beckett singer Rob Turner, the previous frontman having been killed in an auto accident. Soon after this appointment guitarist Les Tones quit. The group's first major performance was supporting UFO at Newcastle's City Hall. Beckett carved out a live reputation by performing residencies at the infamous Star Club in Hamburg, Germany…

Perhaps better known to most as a successful New Zealand, (and NZ's most successful band and hugely popular in NZ and Australia) new wave act from the early 1980s. Split Enz did in fact start life as a prog band formed in 1972 originally spelt Split Ends (the spelling changed to Enz when the band left New Zealand), by friends at Auckland University Phil Judd (Guitar, vocals) and Brian (Tim) Finn (Vocals, piano, guitar), who had an inspired period of song writing together. Their early sound was a mixture of vaudeville and influences of the Beatles, Genesis, Yes, Roxy Music, Jethro Tull and Gentle Giant. Tim's singing style was influenced a little by Brian Ferry while Phil Judd by Roger Chapman of Family.

Jeff Simmons (electric bass/piano/organ/accordion/vocals) - erstwhile member of the Indian Puddin' & Pipe, West Coast Natural Gas, Easy Chair, and Ethiopia - issued a pair of solo long-players on Frank Zappa's short-lived Straight Records imprint. First was the primarily instrumental Naked Angels original soundtrack (1969), followed several months later by this LP. Joining Simmons are Craig Tarwater (guitar), Ian Underwood (sax), and Ron Woods (drums/percussion) with Zappa (lead guitar) and John Kehlior (drums) collectively guesting on the exceedingly bluesy selections "Lucille Has Messed My Mind Up" and "Raye." Apart from the Zappa connection, the effort showcases Simmons' considerable talents as a composer and performer…

Writing on the Wall's only album was theatrical heavy blues-psychedelic-rock that, despite its power and menace, was too obviously derivative of better and more original artists to qualify as a notable work. The organ-guitar blends owe much to the Doors, Procol Harum, and Traffic, though the attitude is somehow more sour and ominous than any of those groups. The vocals are sometimes pretty blatant in their homages to Arthur Brown, particularly when Linnie Paterson climbs to a histrionic scream; Jim Morrison, Gary Brooker, and Stevie Winwood obviously left their imprints on him too. Throw in some of the portentous drama from the narrations to the Elektra astrological concept album The Zodiac: Cosmic Sounds (particularly on "Aries") as well…

Harvest Festival is a genuinely comprehensive and thorough look at the one British major label venture into psychedelia and progressive rock that actually worked, commercially and artistically; it's a panoramic journey though a major part of British rock as it developed over a period of just under a decade. Over the five CDs and 119 songs, more than two dozen acts are featured, ranging from purely English phenomena like Michael Chapman, Quatermass, and Pete Brown to mega-arena acts like Pink Floyd, and the set comes complete with a built-in 120-page book that would be worth 35 dollars by itself.

Although there are those who nail their spirals to Vertigo as the prog label of choice, EMI’s Harvest certainly vies with it for pole position. With Harvest, the detail was everything. Loaded with the bizarre, striking and the strange, turns abounded like the Third Ear Band, Kevin Ayers and The Greatest Show On Earth. From the bad acid of Edgar Broughton’s There’s No Vibrations, But Wait through the squiffy majesty of Dave Mason’s You Shouldn’t Have Took More Than You Gave, to Be- Bop Deluxe’s future pop of Jet Silver and the Dolls Of Venus, this collection is impressive and nostalgic – its very lack of a house style providing its consistency.